Defying Time
by itsBeckChadwick
Summary: The gang has gotten out of rocky situations but what about when an outsider needs their help to save one of their own? What if the only way to save the life of an innocent was to defy time itself? Year Three of the AshleeSeamus septet.
1. The Leaky Cauldron

**_Disclaimer_ for the entire story: Defying time. I own absolutely nothing except for 90% of Ashlee. (Her family connections and last name are not mine for the claiming but her personality is mine, well hers, but written by me.) I own nothing else. **

**Some characters are OOC (Out of Character) and I know you may not like that but it happens with the changing the story around. You'll probably instantly know who they are once there character enters the story. **

**Here we go for round three my darlings. The books are getting means...? Anyone? Anyone? Which means my stories are getting longer! Now a lot of things will be different in this one. A lot. Bear with me. Oliver and Colin both got bigger parts and now a few other characters will as well. Some characters may even get smaller parts. I have a lot planned and who knows if I'll change my mind or not. So Ashlee and Shay are now how old? Anyone? Anyone? Thirteen! And that means? Anyone? Anyone? That they're getting closer! Let's get on with it then. Five points to Gryffindor for the awesome Ferris Bueller reference. **

_Dear Harry,_

_Ron's not the brightest. I hope Dursley's didn't get you into too much trouble. Also, I hope you've finished all your homework. I made sure Ron was going to but he told me he was going to do it at the end of August! What a little bugger. (I sent Percy a letter saying that Ron wasn't going to get his homework done anonymously and since he's head boy now he'll feel the need to make sure Ron does his work)_

_I hope you enjoy the present we've sent. It's from all of us aside from Ron, he had already got you a gift when we began pitching in. I hope you like it, Neville and Gram helped me pick it out. I thought it a great gift for you!_

_Anyways, enjoy your holiday's, do your homework, and see you on the train. I'm not going to London before school starts, Neville won't have completed his homework._

_Ashlee_

I put down my quill and turned around to Neville who had been sitting on my bed wrapping the Broom Kit to send to Harry for his birthday. Neville smiled at me sheepishly when I saw how rubbish Neville was at wrapping. I laughed and walked over to the bed to help him so it could be sent out as soon as possible. After a quick fix of Neville's horrible wrapping job I gave the parcel to Hedwig who was perched on my window pane. Hedwig must have been making sure that I was in fact going to send Harry a gift so that he wouldn't be one of the few people not opening gifts on their birthday.

Hedwig cooed with a tone of gratitude before fluttering off into the bright light of day. Neville scurried off to his room to finish his homework as I'd been pestering him to do since summer began. I laughed as I moved back to my desk to review all my holiday work before packing it into my trunk along with the list of books I need for the classes I chose last year in the spring, amidst the Chamber of Secrets and students being petrified I was able to thoroughly think over my class choices. Seamus sent me a letter saying he picked his classes at random and he hopes that only good will come of it.

I double my trunk for everything I needed before locking it up and carrying it, with a little extra effort, by the door to Grams house. I heard Neville call me from his room and I shook my head and made my way there slowly, not really wanting to help him with his homework even though it was inevitable. As soon as I got there Neville asked me for potions help and I gave him the help he needed with the thought that it could be worse. After he finished I suggested he look it over again but that seemed to go in one ear and out the other because he nodded while throwing it into his trunk and slamming it closed locking it.

"I have a good feeling." Neville said putting both his hands on his hips.

"Oh yeah?" I asked chuckling at the stance he was standing in.

"I think this year is going to be boring." Neville sighed dreamily and then ushered me out of his room but looked at me before closing the door. "Except for the whole Sirius Black thing but that will have nothing to do with us so.." He just slammed the door as an end to his sentence.

I walked back into my room and laid down the bed dozing off into a quick nap. I dreamt of Sirius Black. I dreamt that he came into my room while I was sleeping and attacked me but was driven off by the sounds of sirens approaching. I dreamt that I ran to Neville's room only to find him slaughtered and did the same for Gram. I dreamt that the police broke into my house and while I tried to explain what happened the cuffed and arrested me. I awoke with a start and quickly walked to Neville's door and lightly tapped.

"Go away Ash," Neville's scratching of his quill on parchment and turning of pages could be heard through the door. "I'm trying to finish this and I don't need distractions."

I chuckled at his last minute studying and made my way into the den where Gram was sitting on the couch trying her hand at knitting. She grumbled unhappily and threw it onto the couch beside and got up to walk to the kitchen. I must have been quiet walking in because she jumped at the sight of me.

"Oh dear," Gram covered where her heart was with her hand. "You should announce yourself while entering a room. Not sneak in to give your poor grandmother a heart attack."

I sighed before plopping myself on the couch and staring at the ceiling. We had a very _boring _ceiling, in a very _boring _house. It was a nice house but it was in fact boring. I had one away a couple times to visit my friends. The best time was at one of Dean's family gathering where I heard loads of stories about Dean's childhood. I also had a lot of fun when I went to a quidditch tournament with Seamus who pointed out each player on each team happily. Those were both really fun times but I wasn't having fun now. Now I was bored and really just wanted to go back to Hogwarts and see Harry. Although I missed everyone else as well, Harry hadn't had contact with anyone other then Ron because he ruined using the telephone to call for everyone else.

I sat up and leaned my elbows on my knees to think of something to do. I was beginning to wish I hadn't done my homework yet so I could at least be stressing over doing it before September first. I'd rather be stressed then bored. I was so bored that even the thought of cleaning came to mind. I quickly pushed that thought out of my mind when I decided to invite Gram to a game of wizards chess. Gram agreed and poured to glasses of tea for us to have while we played our game. I was slowly become less bored as the game progressed in silence when Gram finally spoke up.

"Where's your brother?" Gram asked sipping her tea and watching me move my piece across the board.

"Finishing his homework in his room." I chuckled as the thought of him scribbling about burning witches at the stake came to mind.

"He should've done it weeks ago, but never mind that. I want to tell you about your parents. I won't go into detail but you deserve to know. I just recently told Neville about his." Gram said seriously quickly moving her piece and looking up at me who had suddenly lost interest in chess.

"Oh okay." I muttered weakly trying to get her to start talking, I could think of anything else but that to say anyway.

"Your parents were tortured and killed by death eaters, just as Neville's were. They were great friends you see, your parents and his. That's why they took you in without hesitation. We all loved you just as much as we loved Neville. You are part of this family in every sense of the word." Gram explained briefly sparing me the grizzly details of their death.

"Oh okay." I repeated not knowing what to say to that. "Should we continue the game?"

"Of course dear, I have to see if I can finally win at this blasted game." Gram said looking over all the positions of the pieces.

I put all of my focus into the game trying not to think about how my parents died. I didn't want to think of them tied t a chair being tortured for information or anything like that. I also didn't want to think of Neville's parents that way. I wanted to picture mine and Neville's parents like the beautiful people they were as shown in the two picture hanging side by side in the hallway. They were happy in those pictures, all four of them, they had no idea what was coming for them. Unless they did, and that just made the knot in my stomach tighten.

Neville came out of his room with tired looking eyes which Gram commented on but Neville simply groaned and grabbed a biscuit and a glass f water fro the kitchen. Neville waddled back to his room with his food and slammed the door closed again. Gram scoffed at his attitude and continued to move her piece to it's new location. After the game finished, I beat Gram and she mumbled something under her breathe and walked back to her knitting, and walked up to my room.

The next few days had the same events. I was undeniably and constantly lost in my own thoughts. Neville was always in his room rushing to get done the long list of homework that should have been done weeks ago and Gram was trying and failing at knitting herself a sweater. While I laid in my bed staring at the ceiling I heard a cheer come from Neville's room and the loud shuffling of feet. I pushed my torso up and listened intently leaning on the arms that were stretched out behind me. Neville burst into my room holding scrolls of parchment in his arms. He threw them at me and I raised one hand to block my face. Once they settled on my bed I picked on up to examine it, it was Neville's homework.

"We leave tomorrow." I told him putting down the parchment I held.

"I know, and I've finished the homework." He smirked regathering it all in his arms and walking back into his room.

"What a strange boy." I whispered to myself and laid back down on my bed.

The following hours were bland. We had our last dinner for the summer while Gram gushed about me being a teenager. I had no other response but to roll my eyes and continue to eat my food. Neville had tried time and time again to convince Gram that we wouldn't get into trouble this year but for some reason, lack of trust I presume, she didn't believe us. To be fair, there wasn't a boatload of evidence to prove otherwise but that wasn't the point. After supper I went straight into my room but made a slight detour to brush my teeth and went directly to my bed.

I fell asleep faster than I thought I would and dreamt of what the Chamber of Secrets looked like. For that's what everyone aside from Harry and Ginny dreamt of. Although Ginny had told me loads of times what it looked like from the statues of snakes to what the dirty floor felt and smelled like. Of course, my dreams weren't nightmares, they were of Harry saving the day by killing the basilisk.

I woke up to Neville shaking my arm with a huge grin on his face. He pulled the covers off of me earning a groan which was much easier than taking the effort to formulate an actual complaint. When he reminded me that were off to Hogwarts again today I nearly jumped out of my bed. Neville laughed and left the room to let me get ready. I didn't waste time looking nice I threw on jeans and a random jumper. I was too excited to care about trivial things like fashion. I made my way into the kitchen and had a piece of toast with jam on it washed down with a glass of milk. Neville had already carried both of our trunks out and I followed Neville's lead out of the house.

I was so anxious that I barely knew we were travelling to the Leaky Cauldron until we were there. I ran into the building and looked for my friends who were waving me down around a table. I smiled a toothy grin at them all when Neville came up behind me struggling with both of our trunks. Dean laughed but stood up to help Neville carry the trunks over. We were catching the train in just an hour but everyone met up before hand. Parvati and Lavender both got here earlier today and all the boys arrived a few days ago, when Ron got here. I could only imagine what happened over the last few days but I decided to put it out of my mind.

"We came down when Harry sent us a letter saying that he was here." Seamus said taking a bite of some chips.

"Well, it'd off to Hogwarts in two hours. Two!" I exclaimed sitting down beside Seamus and stealing one of his chips. "Isn't it a bit early for chips?"

"Never too early." He replied eating more and laughing.

"Hey, did you send a letter to Percy saying I wasn't going to do my homework?" Ron asked looking at me. "Someone did and I can't figure out who."

"Nope," I shrugged. "Wasn't me." I muttered and Harry coughed trying to hide his laughed and I smirked.

"He made me do my homework. The title of head boy went to his head very quickly." Ron scoffed looking out the window.

The next hour and a half was us just laughing and telling stories of the summer. Dean talked forever about the football game he and I attended. He was proud that he got me obsessed with football and sent him a letters all the time asking him what happened. Parvati told them all about her trip to France with her parents and sister. By her definition everything there is beautiful and elegant. Everyone decided that now was as good a time as ever to make our way to the train station and hop aboard the Hogwarts express.

Mr. Weasley's work had provided us with a couple of ministry cars to get everyone to the train station. The whole Weasley clan, excluding the graduated two, and the seven of us fit into about four cars and we made our way to King's Cross. Harry had told everyone just before we left the Leaky Cauldron that Mr. Weasley had told him to not go looking for Sirius Black no matter what he heard. We all laughed claiming that Harry would never intentionally go looking for a wanted criminal but with our past adventures we do tend to go looking for answers. Once at Kings Cross we made our way to platform nine and three quarters. Running through the wall directly between platforms nine and ten.

We all searched for a place to sit when we found a completely empty booth next to a booth with one one occupant. Neville, Dean, Lavender, Parvati, and Ginny sat in the completely empty one and Seamus, Harry, and I sat in the other, with the man who appeared to be asleep. We quietly chatted not wanting to wake up the man directly next to Seamus and taking away his last few minutes of sleep before arriving at Hogwarts.


	2. The Worst Train Ride

"Who do you think he is?" Ron asked nodding his head towards the sleeping man.

"Professor R.J Lupin." Seamus declared pointing at the top of the briefcase that was sitting war torn on the floor next to the man.

"I reckon he's the new defence against the dark arts teacher, only vacant teaching spot." I mentioned looking over at the man who'd moved in a way that I could see more of his face.

He looked old but still young at the same time. The old was reflected in the speckles of grey in his brownish hair. The young was reflected in his face, yet he look dead tired and seemingly ill. Professor Lupin looks as if he couldn't fight off an angry chocolate frog, perhaps he travelled from far away or perhaps they found him in the same place they found Lockhart. The last thing Hogwarts needed was to find another teacher that turns out to be a bust.

"Anyway, word on the street is that Sirius Black escape to fine _me_." Harry muttered and the group on the other side of the train got quiet to listen in on what Harry was saying.

"Dumbledore will protect you, and besides, the Azkaban guards are going to be patrolling the school." Ron shrugged keeping an eye on Lupin. "Dad has already told me all of this except that he's after you."

"We won't go looking for trouble this year. This year, we study." I declared looking at everyone with a serious face which made the other booth giggle and return to their own conversations.

The statement I made got a groan out of Seamus and I elbowed his arm jokingly. Our laughs were cut short by a whistle that came from the luggage storage above our heads. I looked up along with the other three to see just what was making that really irritating sound. I told Harry that I thought it was coming from his trunk and he pulled it down only to realize it was the Sneakoscope that Ron had gifted him for his birthday.

"I wonder who's around that untrustworthy." Harry muttered peaking out the cabin door for any wandering students.

"You think it's him? We haven't exactly had really trustworthy Defence teachers." Seamus asked sticking out his thumb out and pointing at the sleeping professor beside him.

"It would have lit up earlier." Ron explained covering it with his hands. "Put it away or you'll wake him up, anyway, Draco is probably near by. Harry, have you heard of Honeydukes yet?" Ron changed the topic and Harry shrugged. "It's in Hogsmead an it's a wicked sweet shop. It's got _everything_ you could ever want in it."

"You'll have to tell me all about it." Harry uttered sinking into his seat and crossing his arms as a child would.

"What do you mean?" Seamus asked scrunching his eyebrows together.

"I told you about Aunt Marge, there was no possible way I was getting that form signed by Vernon or Petunia so I left, accidentally called the knight bus met with Fudge and now we're here." Harry explained very briefly before Ron eye's widened.

"You're not going? Nonsense, McGonagall will _have_ to give you permission. Or we can talk to Fred and George! They know every which or way to sneak out of the castle undetected." Ron quickly explained let his mind run wild with ways to break out Harry.

"I really don't think sneaking out is a good idea with Black on the loose, Ron." Seamus said quietly trying not to crush any hopes Harry had.

"Yeah, I'm going to try something new this year. I'm going to try and _not_ loose house points this year. It's a truly revolutionary concept." Harry joked shoving Ron with his elbow. "Besides, you'll have loads of fun without me."

"It won't really be the same." I smiled sadly looking at Harry with sympathetic eyes.

"Anything from the trolley dears?" The lady asked from outside the cabin with a smile.

"Do you think we should wake him? He looks like he could use a meal." Harry asked after he placed his own order.

"Don't wake him up, if he's hungry when he does wake, send him to the front. I'll be up there with the driver." The witch said gently passing Harry a whole pile of cauldron cakes.

Ron started to ask Seamus if the new professor was dead which sent them into their own conversation. Harry handed a cauldron cake to both of them which they accepted with a head nod and then he handed me a small stack of them. I took them and headed next door helping Harry hand out the snacks he bought for everyone. Harry and I were each left with one and we went back to our seats just in time to hear Seamus ask Ron how thick Harry would have to be to go _after_ a nutter that was trying to kill him.

"Not thick enough." Harry laughed taking a small bite of his cake.

"I think that can be debated." Draco Malfoy muttered showing up in the doorway to our cabin. "You have done some pretty _stupid _things, like befriend Weasel over there."

"Leave it alone, Malfoy." I sneered at the pale boy who was way too confident for my liking.

"You've made some mistakes too, Ashlee. Befriending Potty and the Weasel was a terrible decision. I mean, look at him. His whole family is dirt poor." Draco snapped in the ginger haired boys direction making Ron stand up threateningly.

"Who's that?" Draco asked losing his smirk and looking at Professor Lupin.

"New teacher," Seamus shrugged. "Want me to wake him for you?" Seamus bluffed reaching over towards the man who had no clue the tension that was swirling around in the cabin which he chose to rest in.

Draco scoffed before turning and walking down the train to his own compartment somewhere far away from us. I lost interest in Ron's threatening words and turned towards the window to see the raindrops trickling down the windows in lines almost as if they were racing. I could barely see through the terrible weather but I could just make out the hills of green grass below. As I was looking out the window the sky got darker quicker until I couldn't see a single thing out of it. It also got fairly dark in the train and the lights flickered on above our heads and in the isle. The train started to slow and Ron smiled brightly.

"We must be there! Brilliant!" Ron stood up but Seamus looked at his wristwatch. "I can't wait to get my hands on that feast."

"We can't possible be there yet." Seamus muttered counting the hours on his fingers.

"Why else would we have stopped?" Ron questioned but sat back down and looked out the window with squinted eyes anyway.

Ron asked if we'd broken down but I wasn't paying attention. I was looking out the window at the increasingly dark sky. It became darker and darker until nothing could be seen out of the rain covered window at all. That made Ron look away from the window but i kept staring trying to see anything past the water on the glass. Just then the lights, in the corridor and on the luggage rack, went out. The entire train was covered in darkness. I heard some shuffling and then Neville's familiar voice ask if everything was alright. I felt Seamus grab my hand comfortingly. His hand was warm and practically engulfing mine but I barely realized it because I was so distracted due to the odd things occurring on the train.

"Neville?"

"Sit down."

"Move over."

"Somethings moving out there."

"I think someones getting on."

"Quiet."

The harsh whisper stopped our confused voices from making any further sound. Professor Lupin as apparently woken up from his long rest. He lit up the cabin with a dull glow from the fire that was crackling in his hand. The fire lit up his face and anyone could see he was still tired but his eyes were different. His eyes were those of a hunter stalking it's prey, or the eyes of prey being hunted. Either way, he was alert and listening for any unusual sound. We all stared at him, I don't know why everyone else did but I did it because he was easier to look at him than the corridor that could be concealing anything in its darkness.

Lupin made his way to the door only to have something fly in front of his flame. It was a very tall and dark figure, under a cloak and he reached the ceiling in height. Then it reached out from under the cloak with a hand that looked as if it had been decaying and floating in water for years before anyone found it. I gripped Seamus' hand tightly and he pulled me closer to him in the seat which I didn't fight. Then the figures hand retreated concealing itself back under the cloak that was tattered and worn.

The figure backed up and looked as if it was going to leave but instead in took a great breath in, almost as if it was trying to suck up every passenger in the cart. It got freezing cold in the cabin within a few moments and I found myself shivering in a terrified manner. It was dead silent in the room and Harry let out a groan of agony and we all averted our gaze to him who had his eyes rolling back into his skull and a look pure confusion on his face.

Time seemed to slow as Lupin performed a spell that cast the cloaked creature away and illuminated the room in a blinding bright light. Harry slipped from his spot on the bench and onto the floor. I quickly slipped out of Seamus grip and onto the floor next to Harry as did Ron. While Ron and I were nearing Harry the lights flickered back on and the train began to roll forward again. I slapped Harry across the face gently hoping the pain would wake him up.

"Harry get up!" I muttered giving him a little shake.

Harry let out a confused groan while his eyes began to flutter open. Harry looked distorted and very frightened. His face twisted as though he was going to be sick but he didn't. He slowly moved his hand to his face to pushed his circular glasses up his nose. After doing so he looked at his fingers and anyone could see the sweat shimmering on his fingers. I nodded to Ron and Seamus who then helped Harry to his feet and then back into his seat.

"Is she alright?" Harry asked rubbing his eyes under his glasses.

"Is who alright?" Seamus asked nervously looking at our poor friend.

"The woman who was screaming." Harry casually said as if someone had actually screamed.

"No one screamed Harry." I told him kneeling in front of him and placing both my hands on his knees in a friendly way.

"I heard screaming." He stubbornly put looking over to Neville for back up but Neville shifted away uncomfortably.

I pushed myself off of Harry's knees into a standing position. I heard a small snap and looked over my shoulder at Lupin who was breaking a piece of chocolate into smaller pieces.

"Eat this." Lupin then passed Harry a few small pieces of chocolate. "It'll help."

"What was that... thing?" Harry asked looking up at the man feeding him chocolate.

"A dementor." Lupin shook his head light and huffed handing a small piece of chocolate to everyone else assuming we were all as pale as Harry.

Everyone who was sitting on the other side of the train before the madness began were now standing by the door looking over each other to make sure Harry was okay. Ginny went looking for any of her brothers and Ron was the first one she found so she stayed to feel just a little safer than by herself. Lupin shoved the chocolate wrapper in the pocket of the coat he was wearing and grabbed his brief case off of the floor. He straightened his jacket and told us he was off to talk to the driver. Our friends in the hallway made room for Professor Lupin to pass swiftly through them.

We were trying to explain to Harry what had happened when Percy came by in a fit looking for Ron and Ginny. He made sure the both of them were okay and then took Ginny to his booth where he was probably with Penelope Clearwater, his girlfriend. We all brushed off his attitude and focus on the matter at hand. Harry didn't understand why none of us were effected by the dementor and just him. Ron tried to say he was having a fit but we all know Harry didn't randomly have a seizure. Harry looked awful, he looked ill, like he should be laying in bed with a bucket by his bed and a thermometer in his mouth. Everyone in the hallway sat back down in the booth across from us and made small talk but they kept glancing back over at us.

"I haven't poisoned the chocolate." Professor Lupin chuckled from the doorway of our booth. "Eat, you'll feel better. Trust me."

Harry took a cautious bite of his chocolate and it must have felt marvellous because he took a grand bite soon after.

"We'll be at Hogwarts in ten minutes." Lupin told us while continuing to look at Harry. "Are you alright, Harry?"

Harry just nodded and continued eating his chocolate. I had sunk into my seat and closed my eyes. I didn't even feel the usual excitement for the welcome back feast and I don't think anyone else did either. All anyone could feel is the want to get off of this train. I felt a little bad for the first years who were enduring this on their first trip to Hogwarts. Welcome to Hogwarts kids, trouble seems to lurk around every corner while Harry's around. I crossed my arms over my chest and let out a great sigh. We weren't even at Hogwarts yet and something bad has happened to Harry. We were on the _train_ next thing you know he'll be attacked at Kings Cross station. Then the thought of Dobby occurred to me and I realized something bad had happened to Harry at Kings Cross. I could feel Seamus subtly slide closer to me on the bench but I ignored it for now. It was easy to block everything out for ten minutes because nobody really said anything except for the odd _are you feeling better Harry?_ And I already knew the answer to that.

I opened my eyes when we the train stopped, this time it stopped because we arrived at our destination. I took one final look out the window and saw the craze of people fighting to get into the castle and away from all the danger. I saw few dementors in the sky and there were two standing on either side of the path watching and looking at everyone that passed like one of the students had Sirius Black in their pockets. I didn't understand why they were keeping such a close eye on us. Was Sirius Black really crazy enough to attack one of Dumbledore's students? I understand the precaution but could it not have been done inconspicuously? I only stood when Seamus grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet. I just kept watching poor Harry from the corner of my eye.

I made my way off of the train with Lavenders arm looped through mine. We were both frustrated, I could tell she was by her scrunched up nose and pouty lips. If I weren't already annoyed I would have chuckled at her. I found myself in a carriage with Harry, Ron, Lavender, Neville, and Parvati when it started to roll up towards the castle but at the last minute Draco jumped into our carriage. Crabbe and Goyle tried to do the same but I guess they couln't get enough speed. I laughed at the way they ran after us with one hand out stretched towards us. Draco noticed the same thing but he rolled his where as I laughed for the first time in a half hour.

"Is it true, Potter?" Draco asked with a very happy tone of voice. "Did you really faint when you saw the dementors?"


	3. Divination

**Hey, so I realized while writing this I didn't exactly know how they split up the girls and boys into rooms. (Aside from the obvious division of boys and girls) so how I intended it to be was that the first years move into the room that the seventh years had before they graduated and then stay in that room until they graduate. That way they (the staff) can determine how many beds they need per room since it won't always be five boys and five girls. So during the feast one of the teachers does it or something. I don't know but that's how it's going to be here. Alright? Also, this chapter is my longest ever. it was originally longer but I cut off a fair chunk of the end and made that the beginning of the next chapter because I found it too long. **

"Will you shove off, Malfoy!" Ron sneered rolling his eyes then glaring at Draco.

"Did you faint too?" Draco just laughed harder. "Oh no! It's the bag bad dementor!" Draco put the back of his hand on his forehead and pretended to faint landing on my shoulder. I shoved him off without hesitation and he nearly fell out of the carriage.

When we arrived close enough to the castle to walk everyone got out and shoved Malfoy out of the way. We all pulled a disappointed face when he managed to regain his balance. Crabbe and Goyle got out of a carriage a few moments after and followed Malfoy up the steps. I scoffed but made my way into the Great Hall with the friends that were in the carriage with me by my side. As soon as we got into the hall Professor McGonagall called Harry into her office and she heard Flitwick calling Hermione Granger to his office. My first thought was that Hermione may have fainted from the dementors too but I stopped caring almost immediate after beginning to thinking about it.

We all took our seats and I watched Seamus take the seat directly across from me. Seamus, doing his best to lighten up the mood, made a funny face over the table. It worked, I cracked a smile and looked away in defeat. Then the first years loaded into the Great Hall in a double file line. All of them had the same curious face that I'm sure I had when I first entered the school. They all stopped in a crowd around the front of the room facing the teachers table. The sorting hat was in it's typical position at the front of the room, perched on the same and very old three legged stool that so many had sat on to be sorted. I looked back up at the ceiling while sitting squished between Lavender and Ginny, who was still rather shook up about everything.

When all of the first years had a house to call their own Filch picked up the stool and sorting hat. Just as Filch was passing the threshold of the Great Hall Harry returned to the Great Hall with Hermione Granger who said nothing to him as she returned to Ravenclaw with the same look of superiority Percy always wore. Harry made his way over and sat beside Ron who had saved him a seat earlier. Ron asked him what that was about but he didn't have time to answer because Dumbledore stood up and grabbing all of our attention with the simple action.

"Welcome!" Dumbledore greeted with his typical warm tone of voice. "Welcome to another year at Hogwarts! I have a few things to say to you all, and as one of them is very serious, I think it best to get it out of the way before you become befuddled by our excellent feast.." Dumbledore slightly trailed of but quickly reclaimed his thoughts. He went on to explain about the dementors and how they are not easily fooled. They will know if you are out of place even while wearing an invisibly cloak and I knew who that was directed towards. Dumbledore had a very slight easily missed grimace on his face while he spoke of the guards but quickly lost it and perked up again. "On a more pleasant note, I'm happy to welcome two new teachers to our ranks. Professor Lupin, who will be filling the previously vacant Defence Against the Dark Arts teaching position." A small round of applause went around while Harry pointed out the look of loathing on Snapes face which caused my stomach to twist.

"I've never seen him _that _angry before." Ron muttered looking down at the table.

"The next teacher to be welcomed would be none other than Rubeus Hagrid who has agreed to take over the newly retired Professor Kettleburn in addition to his gamekeeping position." Dumbledore barely finished his sentence before a loud cheer erupted, loudest at the Gryffindor table in particular.

"Explains why a teacher assigned us a biting book." Ron laughed clapping with crowd at the appointment of our friend.

"I believe that to be the last of the announcements," Dumbledore clapped once and we all looked to Hagrid who was now wiping his cheeks dry with the table cloth. "Let the feast begin!" Dumbledore spread apart his hands and the food appeared on the table magically.

Harry wasted no time in filling up his plate with anything his hands could reach. I grabbed a piece of chicken and a baked potato. I grabbed a piece of cobbed corn and began to eat my meal. Harry told us about the fuss McGonagall made when she heard of his little fit on the train and he laughed when he told us the Madam Pomfrey was not surprised he was there, even on the first day back. All around the Great Hall the sound of knives and forks could be heard scraping the golden plates which would soon be covered in dessert.

"I'm already really exciting for Hagrid's class." Lavender smiled looking over her shoulder at him.

"I know what you mean." Seamus replied putting his hand over his mouth as he swallowed. "But, I'm also beyond nervous about those biting books. Books shouldn't bite!"

"And people wonder why I don't read." Ron muttered weakly and everyone burst into laughter.

"So, why did Kettleburn even retire? He wasn't that old." I openly asked the group taking the last bite of the food on my plate.

"I heard he gotten another limb bitten off." Parvati answered passing me the plate full of butter tarts and I happily grabbed one.

"Another?" Harry asked wiping his mouth with his sleeve.

"That's what I heard." Parvati announced placing her elbows on the table and linking her arms together to place her chin on her fingers.

"Alright everyone, settle down!" Dumbledore instructed and we all gave him our full attention. "It's time for bed."

The food disappeared from the table and we all made our way over to the teachers table to congratulate Hagrid. We just got there and wished him luck in his class before McGonagall shooed us to our dormitories. We turned on the spot and made our way back to the common room. We all absent mindedly walked to the Gryffindor Tower while chatting about what it would be like to lose a bunch of limbs while teaching a class how to be careful around certain creatures. Seamus even impersonated Kettleburns legendary walk that could easily be picked out in a crowd. When we made it to the portrait half of the house was already inside and the other half were shuffling into the common room. We patiently waited for everyone to make it in before us.

Harry sighed lightly as he quickly rushed to his room. The rest of us said goodbye and goodnight and went to our separate dorms. Parvati and Lavender made our way up the girls staircase and walked into the room the was strictly for third years. The three beds already had our trunks on them and I made my way to mine which was in the middle of the other two. I pulled open my trunk and put all my books in the cupboard of the bedside table and all my clothes in the trunk at the end of the bed. I put the best letter I got this summer from a certain Irish boy and my wand in the door on the bedside table.

"Goodnight ladies." Lavender said climbing under her covers.

Parvati and I both muttered a goodnight. I climbed into bed and tucked myself in tightly. I looked at the curtain on the four poster bed I would be using for the following months. I looked around the room and just realized how much I had actually missed this room and spending every night with Lavender and Parvati. I slowly dozed off thinking similar thoughts to those previous and my dreams weren't dreams, but memories. I dreamt of when Neville fist showed signs of magic and when I first met Seamus and Dean on the train on our way to Hogwarts for the first time.

With those dreams going through my mind I couldn't help but to wake up happy. I happily pulled the covers off of me and stood up with a serious stretch. Lavender was already trying to brush out her hair and Parvati was still sleeping in her bed peacefully. That was until Lavender decided to jump up and down on her bed singing some song that I'd never heard before. Parvati kicked Lavenders feet out from under her and Lavender fell onto the bed landing on her butt. Parvati laughed without opening her eyes and cuddled into her pillow.

I laughed and changed into my robes before brushing out my own hair. We always did this in the morning, goof off and procrastinate until we absolutely had to go meet the boys. This was the first time we got to do this all together since the sleepover at Lavenders house. When we were all properly dressed the three of us walked downstairs and saw the guys weren't in the common room. That could only mean one thing, they were hungry and totally ditched us. Parvati shook her head and we walked by ourselves down to the Great Hall.

When we walked in the boys were sitting there stuffing there faces with french toast and various other breakfast foods. They smiled at us but continued on with their conversation. I sat in between Seamus and Neville who wasn't eating but repeating the new Gryffindor password over and over in case he needed to go back on his own. I laughed and started saying random words to break his concentration. Neville shoved my arm to shut me up I presume and it worked because I turned my concentration to the conversation everyone else was having. Seamus caught me up and told me that George, who I'd just missed, had told the boys all about of Malfoy was terrified on the train when the dementors were near him.

Ron then remembered what he was holding and passed out the girls' time tables. I had chosen Divination and Care For Magical Creatures as my electives because none of them had anything to do with what I wanted to do when older anyway. Seamus stole my timetable and checked it alongside his. He smiled and told me our classes were the same.

"You can help me study." Seamus decided handing me my timetable back.

"I always help you study." I said grabbing my timetable back to look at today's schedule.

I would start the day with divination. Then I would go to Transfiguration, then lunch. After lunch I would go to the dungeon for potions then to Defence Against the Dark Arts. The last class of the day had me excited and nervous. Care for Magical Creatures with Hagrid. Just as I read that Hagrid passed our group and whispered that he'd been up since five o'clock getting everything ready. Ron moaned with anxiety as he typically did when somethings got him anxious.

"Well, we should probably get going." I mentioned standing up.

Harry and Ron stayed behind to finish their conversation with Colin about his classes this year. I chuckled at his cute little face and walked out of the Great Hall with my friends. It took us about fifteen minutes to get to the top of the North Tower but we had taken our sweet time. Neville was still muttering _Fortuna Major _over and over again until it was stuck in his brain. He refused to let himself get locked out this year. When we arrived at the classroom door, well trapdoor, we climbed up the silver ladder one by one until we were all in the class. The teacher, Professor Trelawney, was setting a few things in in the middle of the room. The class was almost fully here, except for a few Ravenclaws and Harry and Ron.

The Gryffindors that took this class were Harry, Ron, Lavender, Neville, Seamus, and I. Parvati was taking Muggle Studies and Dean was taking Arithmancy. The class room reminded me of my Grams attic and when I told Neville that he smiled brightly agreeing with me. I sat at a small curricular table with Lavender and Seamus. Neville sat alone at the moment but there were two empty chairs Ron and Harry would most likely sit in. They came into class just as the clock ticked to nine o'clock. They went to the table Neville sat at and plopped themselves into the chairs. They whispered tat they got lost and I rolled my eyes at the two boys.

Professor Trelawney then came into view from beside the fireplace. I had no idea that she was even lurking in the shadows, or there was a secret passage. In the light of the very dim fire I could she how skinny and fragile she looked. Her glasses made her eyes half the size o her head and on top of her head sat the craziest hair I'd ever seen. As though she couldn't tame it if she cast a spell on it. Never the less I smiled at the teacher trying my best to give her the benefit of the doubt even though she looked like a right nutter.

"Welcome to Divination!" Professor Trelawney spread her arms wide and then clapped once but kept her hands together. "My name is Professor Trelawney. You may not have seen me before. I find that descending to often into the hustle and bustle of the main school clouds my Inner Eye." She let her arms fall limp beside her body. "So you have chosen to study Divination, the most difficult of all magical arts. I must warn you at the outset that if you do not have the sight there is very little I will be able to teach you. Books can only take you so far in this field." She smiled sympathetically at the Ravenclaws that audibly gasped at these words. "Many witches and wizards,talented thought they are in the area of loud bangs and smells and sudden disappearings, are you yet unable to penetrate the veiled mysteries of the future. It is a gift granted to few You, boy!" Trelawney suddenly spun and pointed directly at Neville who leaned back in his chair and would have toppled backwards and crashed to the floor had Harry not caught the back of his chair.

"Y-yes Professor?" Neville stuttered looking sheepishly at the eccentric teacher.

"Is your grandmother well?" Professor Trelawney asked slowly lowering the hand she used to point at Neville.

"I-I think s-so." Neville tried to sound confident but his nervous stutter and hiccup sounded otherwise.

"I wouldn't be so sure dear." Trelawney turned away from Neville leaving him with a very confused face. "We will be covering the basic methods of divination this year. The first term will be devoted to reading tea leaves. Next term we shall progress to palmistry. By the way my dear," She shot at Hermione Granger who jumped at suddenness of Trelawney's pointing at her. "Beware the red haired man." Hermiones gaze landed on Ron and hers eyes widened as she scooted her chair a little farther away. "In the summer term, we shall progress to the crystal ball – if we have finished with the fire-omens, that is. Unfortunately, classes will be disrupted in February by a nasty bout of the flu. I myself with lose my voice. And around Easter one of our number will leave us forever." Trelawney said too casually. "I wonder dear," Trelawney looked to Lavender who held her breathe. "If you could pass me the largest tea pot."

Lavender let out her breathe and we watched her walk over to the shelf that held the teapots and grabbed the largest teapot she saw. Lavender carried it to Trelawney and placed it on the table in front of her. As she went to sit down Trelawney gently grabbed her arm.

"Thank you, my dear. Incidentally that thing your dreading – it will happen on the sixteenth of October." Trelawney said and Lavender visibly shuddered.

"What are you dreading?" I whispered wiggling my eyebrows and she waved my off before crossing her arms an sinking into her seat.

"Now, I want you to divide into pairs. Collect a teacup from the shelf, come to me so I can fill it. Then sit down and drink; drink until only the dregs remain. Swill these around the cup three times with your left hand, then turn the cup upside-down on it's saucer; wait for the last of the tea to drain away, then give your cup to your partner to read. You will interpret the patterns using pages five and six of _Unfogging the Future. _I shall move among you, helping and instructing," Trelawney sighed and then looked to Neville again. "after you've broken your first cup, would you be so kind as to select one of the blue patterned ones? I'm rather attached to the pink." She held up three fingers and slowly put each down. When her last finer was down there was a shattering of glass and Trelawney didn't turn around. "One of the blue ones, then, dear, if you wouldn't mind... thank you."

Lavender and Neville were partners, Harry and Ron were partners, and Seamus and I were partners. After getting one of the pink teacups and allowing Trelawney to fill it up. I made my way back to my seat and downed the scalding hot liquid. I swilled them around three times with my left hand as instructed then turned the cup upside down and let it sit for a moment. When I turned it upright I passed it to Seamus and he passed me his.

"Let me go first." Seamus said turning his book open to pages five and six. "Um, I see an aircraft and.." Seamus looked at his book for a second. "It definitely looks like it's flying at me so you either have unexpected news or an unexpected journey coming." Seamus tensed at the mention of the journey but I began to talk before he could complain so early into the term.

"Okay," I looked at the cup and Seamus slide his book over since it was already on the right page. "I see a very distinct star and that means that-" I was cut off by Harry and Ron trying not to laugh.

"Broaden your minds, my dears, and allow your eyes to see past the mundane!" Trelawney said directing it to Harry and Ron. She then walked over to us and asked what we saw.

"I was just about to say that I see a star, which means you may accomplish a goal, whether or not it's your most important goal, you'll accomplish a goal." I said passing the cup to her and she nodded handing it back.

"That's way I would say, we'll move onto details later. Good job." Trelawney praised clapping twice very lightly and then looked to Seamus expectantly.

"I saw an aircraft of some sort flying towards me, the reader, so I believe Ashlee will have either and unexpected journey," He grimaced slightly. "Or unexpected news coming her way."

"Excellent work from the both of you. Three points to Gryffindor!" Trelawney patted Seamus' back before moving along.

Seamus and I high fived happily accepting the points to our house. Seamus was so proud of himself that he didn't bring up the journey at all. It could have been unexpected news, she did say Gram wasn't well. Neville and I would have to send a letter at the end of today's classes. Seamus and I went back to looking at our cups for any other information. I practically shoved the teacup in his face when I noticed something else. He gently pushed a little farther away but claimed he didn't see anything.

"It's a dotted line! I think... that means.." I checked the book to confirm what I already thought. "You're going to come into money!" I smiled at him and he returned the smiled with one of his even though it seemed like his mind was elsewhere.

I listened to Ron begin to spitball ideas of what things looked like. After changing his mind between hippo and sheep a couple of times Trelawney swirled over and took the cup from him. She peaked inside the cup teacup. Her eyes went wide briefly and she talked to herself for a minute before sighing lightly and turning to Harry.

"My boy," Trelawney sighed. "You have the grim."

"The what?" Harry asked pulling a confused face at Professor Trelawney.

"It's an omen, Harry! It's really terrible. It's the omen of ... it's the omen of death." Hermione said from her spot on the other side of the class with a smirk and Trelawney nodded covering her mouth with her shakey right hand.

"I think... yes... I think we'll leave the class here for today." Trelawney muttered removing her hand from her mouth. "Please pack your things and leave the teacups on the tables. Thank you."

We all grabbed what belonged to us and went single file down the trapdoor. The Ravenclaws all went separate ways with their friends, Hermione went alone, but us Gryffindors all stuck together and I made a note mental note of that.

"Until we meet again!" Trelawney said as I walked down the ladder. "Oh and Neville dear, you'll be late next time, so perhaps, if you stick with your friends, you won't, alright never mind. You now know to stay with them. Goodbye."

Neville just shook his head in confusion at the teachers words. We laughed and then hurried to make our way to Transfiguration. He rushed down the hallways, breaking the habit of taking our time. When we got to Transfiguration, McGonagall wasn't yet there so we all took our seats, near Dean and Parvati, who didn't have to travel nearly as far.

"There isn't a single other Gryffindor in either of our classes. Luckily, Dean has Justin and I have Padma." Parvati said turning around in her chair to lean her elbows on the desk and fill me in on her morning.

"Good," I smiled at her. "I'm glad you guy aren't alone." I put my books on the two person desk and Seamus put his beside me. Lavender sat directly behind me and Ron sat next to her. Directly behind Ron was Neville and Harry took the seat next to him. In front of me was Parvati and Dean took the seat next to her before the Divination crew even got to the class.

McGonagall made her way into the room and welcomed us back to Hogwarts warmly as she did every year until she had a reason to be cross. She played with the parchments on her desks for a few moments before moving in front of her desk in a very swift movement. McGonagall looked around the class and began her lecture.


	4. Care for Magical Creatures

"Animagi is a witch or wizard, that can transform his, or her, self in an animal." McGonagall defined the word in simple terms before elaborating. "It is not hereditary. It is a skill that you must work on for years and years before you are able to use this skill regularly. An Animagi can turn them self into _one_ animal only. Now, any major features on the human will reflect on their animal. For instance my spectacles are reflected on the cat I take the form of." McGonagall realized the lack of attention she had focused on her other than the jotting of notes even when she transformed from a cat back to a person. "What has gotten into you all today?"

"Please Professor," Lavender said raising her hand and sighing. "we've just had our first Divination lesson and we were reading tea leaves and then-"

"Ah yes, who's going to die this year?" McGonagall asked pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Harry." Lavender said pointing to him with her thumb over her shoulder.

"Ah, of course. Say no more, Professor Trelawney had predicted death every year since she started here and no one ... from her class ... has died yet." McGonagall said carefully wording what she said. "You look to be in excellent health Mr. Potter, so you'll excuse me if I don't let you off homework today. If you die, you need not hand it in."

Seamus laughed at that but stopped when he realized that Harry didn't really buy into it. Harry's past experiences probably lead him to believe her. I elbowed Seamus and told him to quit staring. Seamus turned back around and we all continued to take notes on Animagi. McGonagall successfully gaining our attention this time.

We took notes for the remainder of the class and were given a quick homework assignment. All McGonagall asked us to do was describe one major step in the process of becoming an Animagi. McGonagall was clearly taking it easy on our first day of classes.

Ron was telling Parvati and Dean all about the omen they saw in Harry's cup. He even got into a small fight about whether or not it's real. I fell back and walked with Seamus. He talked nonstop about how well he thought he was going to do in that class. He even said that he might do better than Hermione Granger in that class, as she struggled with, _her inner eye._

"Of course you'll do better than her." Dean said turning to Seamus. "She's in my Arithmancy class."

"She's in my Muggle Studies." Parvati said and we all stopped and looked at each other.

"It's impossible that she was in all of our classes." I said pushing through my friends and continuing to walk to the Great Hall.

Everyone agreed, Ron claimed she's cloned herself so her clones can teach the real one about the classes she didn't go to, but stopped talking about it when we passed her in the hallway. She was stalking away from the Great Hall with an Arithmancy text book under her arm. I watched her passed and continued to look over my shoulder confused but Seamus bumped into me. He put his hands on my hips and pushed me forward with a slight chuckle.

We entered the Great Hall and took our seats while chatting about Trelawney's unique personality. I had two sandwich halves and a handful of carrots. I quickly gulped down my drink and stood up from the table. For some reason, and I wasn't going to complain about it, there was a note on our time table that all third period classes were cancelled for the first day only. That class was potions which had me annoyed. I started to leave when Neville noticed and asked me where I was going.

"I'm going to go do my Animagi homework." I simply put turning to walk away from the group.

"Wait, I'll go with you." Seamus said standing up and grabbing his books to scurry over to where I was waiting.

"I'm actually doing the homework." I seriously said to him.

"I'll be good." Seamus promised holding up his textbook as if that proved anything.

We made our way to the Gryffindor Tower Reading Room which was empty except for Colin Creevey. We waved us over and I took the across from him while Seamus sat next to me. Colin just continued to read a text book with serious interest.

"So, what are doing here? Instead of eating?" Seamus asked getting his everything he needed out.

"I was petrified last year. I missed a lot of stuff. I have to work hard." Colin explained not looking up from his book.

"Mind if we talk while doing homework?" I asked him and he looked up from his book.

"About your homework?" Colin questioned looking at me with a smirk and narrow eyes.

"Of course." I said placing my hand over my heart in a sincere gesture.

"Permission granted." Colin chuckled returning his attention to his book.

Seamus and I began to talk about the steps in general. We both briefly described the stages of training in a short paragraph. Seamus and I then chose different steps to elaborate on. We worked in silence for most of the time except for the odd time Seamus asked me a question or two. Sometimes about grammar, sometimes about if he was even right or not. I finished my work and rolled up my parchment and packed up everything.

I looked over at Seamus and he looked so adorable. He had his tongue poking of his lips and he was most likely biting it inside of his mouth as he was writing feverishly until he smiled and slapped his quill on the table dramatically. His smile brightened and I was still looking at him with soft eyes and a small half smile. He grabbed his parchment and read over his work, halfway through reading his tongue poked out again. He set down his work and looked over at me, realizing that I'd been staring at him he smiled.

"What?" Seamus laughed touching his cheek. His fingers were spread apart and his pinky finger was resting on his bottom lip. "Is there something on my face?"

"What?" I asked snapping out of the little trance I found myself in.

"Why were you looking at me like that?" Seamus asked raising his eyebrows and letting a smile continuously grow on his face.

"Hmm, I wonder..." Colin sarcastically asked and Seamus looked confused and I just glared at Colin which made him laugh.

"We should go find the others." I said standing up taking my things with me. "See you later Colin."

"See you." Colin mumbled from behind his book and his hand let go to wave slightly.

"Is lunch over?" I asked looking over at Seamus.

"Yeah, and had we actually had potions it would be over in just a few moments." Seamus said before we split up to put our homework in our own rooms.

We left the common room together looking for our friends who were just now leaving the Great Hall. We regrouped and walked outside to where Hagrid would be teaching his first class. We were all chatting about it excitedly. We all had this class and it's a good thing too because none of us wanted to miss Hagrid's first ever class. As we neared Hagrid's hut I couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes. Draco Malfoy and his friends were waiting there for the class to begin, meaning this class would be with our _favourite _house, Slytherin. Hagrid ushered us down the edge of the trees until we came to a little spot that was like a clearing. We all made our way to the fence and everyone was fighting to get a good view because anything could happen in the next few moments.

"Firs yew'll have ta open yer books." Hagrid said casually as if we knew how to do that.

"How?" Draco sneered looking at his monster book with wide eyes.

"Wha?" Hagrid asked raising his eyebrows.

"How do we open our books?" Draco snapped holding his belted closed book in the air waving it in Hagrid's sight.

"Hasn't any of yah opened yer books yet?" Hagrid asked looking around the group. "Yew stroke them. See." Hagrid took my copy of the book and took off twine I had used to secure it closed.

Hagrid stroked the spine with his massive thumb and you could see the book shiver in his hand and fall open staying completely still. I took it back and looked at the pages. I heard Draco shrill voice complain about something but I didn't bother to pay attention. I heard Harry tell Malfoy to shut up and I chuckled.

"Think that's funny?" Draco sneered towards me.

"Yes." I said in a blunt way that made him speechless other than a scoff of defeat.

I only looked up from my book when Lavender grabbed my face and pointed my eye sight towards the little clearing guarded by a fence. Hagrid had about four chain in his hand, each chain branching off and secure one of twelve big creatures. They were gorgeous, half eagle half horse. Hagrid happily called them Hippogriffs. We did a little talking before Hagrid smiled at the class asking who wanted to go first. Everyone took a step backwards, Harry didn't want to see Hagrid not know what to do in a situation so he stepped forward to volunteer. Harry did everything Hagrid told him to, he bowed slowly raised his hand and stepped forward. Hagrid smiled when Harry began to pet the Hippogriff. Hagrid then grabbed Harry and claimed he could ride him. Harry's eyes widened which made me chuckle a little.

It looked fun, Harry soared above with a big smile on his face, visible from even way below him. When he landed on the ground his eyes were watering from the wind but he still had a grin on his face. This flying was controlled by something else instead of Harry, as he was used too. It was a change with Harry clearly embraced. Hagrid invited us all into the clearing and we climbed over the fence. Parvati and I practised on one name Winder. I went first and did all the steps correctly and Winder also bowed. I gave him a pet on his beak before slowly stepping away. Parvati was about to try when her concentration was snapped away from Winder and over to Malfoy.

Malfoy had screamed so loud and high pitched you'd think he was being tortured. Winder then bowed at me with a startled look in his eye and I made my way over to pet his head in reassurance. I was proud that the creature wanted my comfort. I looked over at the scene as did all the other Hippogriffs and students. Apparently Malfoy made fun of Buckbeak, the Hippogriff Harry had ridden, and it scratched his arm with his large talons. Hagrid wrestled Buckbeak into his collar and picked up Malfoy running with him up to the castle. All the Slytherins quickly ran out of the clearing closing the gate and leaving the Gryffindors and Hippogriffs in it.

"He should be sacked immediately!" Pansy Parkinson whined tears spilling out her eyes and rolling down her squished face.

"It was Malfoys fault!" Dean defended Buckbeak and Pansy cried harder making her way to the castle with the rest of the Slytherins.

The Gryffindors then put all the Hippogriffs back into the collars that would keep them locked to the fence. Neville, who had left the clearing a while ago, just watched and complained about how he was already going to fail this class. I laughed at Neville while I gently put Winder's collar back on. He made a sound in the back of his throat of dissatisfaction but allowed me to put the collar on anyway. After I did I went to leave the clearing as the rest were secured but Winder put his beak under my hand and made me give him a goodbye pet.

After we left the clearing we grabbed our monster books and stroked the spine again, just in case, and left the Slytherins books right on the ground where they had forgotten them. Hopefully they ran away and Slytherins had to get new ones. Maybe even one of them would get there hands bitten off. Once back in the castle we went into common room to put our books away. I sat on my bed for a moment before Lavender made her way and sat beside me. She asked me if I wanted to go down and play Gobstones with her before dinner. I accepted her offer and we made our way to the common room and sat in the nooks by the window to play.

After playing for ten minutes I was ahead by four points and Lavender smelled pretty awful. She raised her hands in surrender and she left to wash her face. I hadn't even been sprayed by the game so I just went over to the table on the far side of the room that Harry, Ron, and Parvati were sitting at. They were making plans to go check on Hagrid after supper.

"Are you crazy?" I asked in a harsh but whispered tone. "With the dementors crawling around the grounds waiting for a reason to blame someone for something?"

"We know it's not the greatest idea." Ron muttered and Parvati smiled weakly.

"You can leave for thirty minutes." I said finally because I _did _want to know how Hagrid was as well. "But if you don't return in that time I'm telling McGonagall. For your safety, okay?"

I was nervous all throughout dinner, Harry and Ron were laughing like nothing was wrong while Seamus told a funny story. I just ate my food quietly and become ever more stressed when supper was done. The next five minutes were a blur. We went to the common room and Harry and Ron left under their cloak. I waited for twenty seven minutes when they busted into the common room. They told us about Hagrid snapping and yelling at them about being out in the dark.

"He's right." I smirked happy that the boys were alright but unimpressed that they had gone out despite my warning.


	5. Defense Against The Dark Arts

Malfoy didn't return to classes until Friday. He came into our potions class late, without getting into trouble I might add, and complained the whole time. While working with Seamus to make a shrinking potion I heard Ron and Harry being commanded to help him but I was in my favourite class, so my attention was directly on my potion and the instructions. I handed Seamus a Shrivelfig and asked him to peel them while I cut the daisy roots as even as I possibly could.

We followed the instructions until it was time to let it simmer. While it did that we packaged up all the unused ingredients and put them away. Snape would take twenty points from Gryffindor if even one dead hairy caterpillar went to waste. I washed my hands and told Seamus to keep an eye on it and turn the heat completely off when it turns green. I dried my hands and saw Seamus click off the burner. He then went to wash his hands. Snape was eyeing my potion and turned on his heel without saying anything.

"Gather round everyone." Snape called and we walked over and I let my shoulders slump down when I saw poor Neville shaking profoundly. "If Neville has managed to correctly brew a Shrinking Solution then his toad will shrink to a mere tadpole. If not, it will most likely be poisoned." Snape muttered and Neville started to turn red from holding his breathe.

Snape then poured a few drops on the unsuspecting toad named Trevor, who then shrank and began to squirm in Snape's hand. Neville let the breathe drain from his lungs and Snape used a growing potion to even out Trevor's change.

"Five points from Gryffindor!" Snape announced and I raised my eyebrows and shared a look of disgust will Seamus. "For helping him." He glared at Parvati who took a small step back.

Neville slouched all the way back to the Common Room and dramatically threw himself into the couch. We all laughed at his childish behaviour as we put our books away and then left to make our way down to the Great Hall for lunch.

"Snape is way too biased." Seamus said taking a bite of his turkey sandwich.

"Oh really?" Ron muttered sarcastically. "I hadn't noticed. I was too busy cutting my daisy roots to perfection."

"Don't be bitter towards your friends." Lavender scolded biting her muffin.

"Sorry Seamus." Ron genuinely apologized.

"Oh good," Seamus sighed jokingly. "You apologized! I may be able to sleep tonight now."

After lunch was finished we all made our way to Defence Against The Dark Arts with Professor Lupin. Once at that classroom we took our seats, Seamus claiming the one beside me, and began to chat before the professor arrived. When he waltzed into the class with a friendly smiled we all quieted to take in his appearance. He was carrying the same tattered old briefcase that could have easily been replaced by the school. The difference, however, was that he looked like he was wide awake and that he'd eaten for at least three hours straight.

"Hello class, welcome to our first lesson. If you could all just, put away your books please." He asked looking around the class and waiting for us to put our things away. "Good, today's a practical lesson, you'll only need your wands."

"Right then." Lupin nodded when all the books were away and the class was giving him our full undivided attention. "If you'd follow me thank you."

I left my bag on the floor beside my desk as did the rest of the class as I followed Professor Lupin out of the classroom and a little ways down the hall. We ran into Peeves who was upside and making fun of Lupin. Lupin's smile didn't even crack though, he just kept smiling as he pulled out his wand.

"This is a useful little spell. "Professor Lupin checked the crowd around him to make sure we were watching. "_Waddiwasi!_" Lupin exclaimed and the piece of gum Peeves was trying to stick in the key hole flew out and landed in Peeves left nostril.

"Cool..., sir!" Dean said adding sir as and after thought.

"Thank you, Dean." Lupin chuckled. "Shall we proceed." We all nodded in answer as we watched Peeves blow air out of his nostrils while floating away.

I thought we were going to go into the room that Lupin just protected from Peeves but instead we walked past the room and continued until we stood right outside the staff room. Lupin ushered us in and we took a look around. There were chairs, not one matched another, scattered all over the room, and only one remained occupied during this time. Professor Snape had a potions book in his hands but his face snapped away from it when the door opened and our class filed in. Snape stood up and turned up his nose as he walked around the crowd of teens.

"Possibly no one has warned you but, this class contains Neville Longbottom. I wouldn't entrust anything difficult with him unless someone," He looked at Parvati sharply. "Is giving him clear instruction."

"I was actually hoping that Neville would help me demonstrate the first stage of the operation." Lupin smiled but it wasn't friendly or threatening. "I'm _sure_, he'll perform admirably." Snape blew air out of his nose and then left the room closing the door behind him harshly. "Now then," Lupin led us to the end of the room where a wardrobe full of spare robes sat.

The wardrobe seemed to have something or someone inside of it because it gave a little lurch forward before smashing back against the wall. We were told it contained a Boggart. Neville looked completely horrified with the news and Seamus and I both took to staring at the wiggling doorknob. I've heard about Boggarts, so when he asked if anyone knew what they were I raised my hand sharply.

"They're shape-shifters." I said when Lupin nodded to me with another one of his smiles. "They take the shape of whatever they think will frighten us the most."

"Precisely, no better way to put it than that." Lupin praised. "Now, nobody knows what a Boggart looks like when he's alone, because he likes complete loneliness in cold, dark areas. That is why he's here." Lupin looked around for confused faces but when he found none he continued to speak. "The Boggart does not yet know what form he will take until he sees his foe. Which means," He took a pause to let that sink in. "That we have a huge advantage right off the bat."

"If there's so many of us," Lavender asked after getting her hand called upon. "How will it know what form to take?"

"Excellent question." Lupin said with a clap of his hands. "That's actually one of the precautions I was going to say. Always face a Boggart with company around you. That confuses it, the Boggart won't know what form to take and sometimes they'll get so confused that they try to scare two people at once. Then it'll end up being half of one thing and half of the other which is typically not scary at all."

"Twenty points to your house if you know what charm will repel a Boggart." Lupin chuckled and tapped is forehead like he forgot something. "Oh yeah, that's what your here to learn." He joked and he took out his wand. "Okay, the charm is _Riddikulus _and after you say that the most frightening thing will turn into something amusing, because, what really finishes a Boggart is laughter. Alright, on the count of three Neville. One," Neville stood shivering at Lupins words. "Two," The whole class backed against the wall. "Three!" Sparks shot out of Lupins wand and unlocked the wardrobe.

Professor Snape then slowly walked out of the closet. He flicked his Robes off of his arm as the real Professor Snape usually does and sneered at Neville.

"R-" Neville took a quick breathe before exclaiming, _Riddikulus_ with confidence. The Boggart then become Professor Snape wearing my Grams clothing. Snape in a lace green dress was not what I expected to see waking up this morning.

"Parvati! Forward!" Lupin instructed and she pushed off the wall with determination. The Boggart became a mummy with bloody bandages. She exclaimed the charm at the Boggart and the mummies feet unravelled making him trip and landing on his back on the floor.

"Seamus!" Lupin yelled and the Boggart rolled on his front and then became a banshee, a terrifying one at that. The Banshee had a very pale green face that was surrounded with black hair.

"_Riddikulus_!" Seamus said confidently not showing any fear and began to laugh when the banshee lost her voice and had no way of reclaiming it. The banshee then became a rat, then a rattlesnake, then a sickening bloodied eyeball.

"It's confused, keep it up. Dean!" Lupin yelled from his spot and Dean ran forward and watched as the Boggart became a severed hand crawling across the floor towards Dean who hesitated then yelled _Riddikulus_ as everyone else hand and a mouse trap appeared and snapped the Boggart.

"Excellent! Ashlee, you next." Lupin roared pointing for me to step forward. As I did the Boggart turned into a Bludger which came soaring towards my head. I ducked but yelled _Riddikulus_ when it was directly above me, it fell and crashed into my head but when it did it turned into a bunch of bubbles that rose up in the air.

"Perfect! Ron!" Lupin cheered as he watched the scene unfold. Ron stepped forward and no one was surprised when it turned into a spider but we all laughed when it's legs detached and it rolled over to Lavender who made a noise of disgust at it.

"Here!" Lupin cried before Harry could and the spider body transformed from a body to a glossy white ball in the air. Lupin yelled the charm and it deflated like a balloon would. "Neville! Finish him!" Neville confidently stepped forward at the Boggart returned to it's form as Professor Snape. Neville raised his wand seriously and looked at the Boggart dead in the eye. Without hesitation he shouted _Riddikulus _and Snape once again was wearing Grams clothes but this time the loud laugh that came out of Neville made the Boggart twitch.

It twitched over and over in the form of Professor Snape, until it exploded it a big black cloud of dust which then fell to the floor in a pile.

"Well done!" Lupin congratulated putting a hand on the smiling Neville's shoulder. "Lets see here, five points to everyone in Gryffindor house who took on the Boggart and ten to Neville for doing it twice. Homework will be to read the chapter on Boggarts and summarize it for me. To be handed in on Monday. Class dismissed. Please don't forget to grab your things from my classroom before leaving." Lupin stayed in the staff room, probably to clean up the Boggart, and we made our way down the hall back to his classroom noisily. We were all excited about what had just happened and we were all very proud of Neville.

"Did you see how I took on that banshee?" Seamus cheered raisin one fist.

"And the hand." Dean said flailing his hand around for us all to see.

"Did you _see_ Snape in that hat?" Neville asked smiling brightly.

"My mummy didn't stand a chance." Parvati grinned as we reentered his classroom.

"I wonder why Professor Lupin is afraid of crystal balls?" Lavender wondered out loud and we all stopped picking up our bags for a second to ponder it but shrugged it off.

"That was the best defence class we've ever had!" Seamus said clapping me on the back.

"Lupin is a really good teacher, he's pretty funny too." I approved laughing with my friends back to the common room.

"So Ash." Seamus said walking with me while everyone began their own conversations. "Why bludgers?"

"I'm afraid of bludgers, I'm afraid of getting _hit_ by bludgers. Nasty things they are." I shivered thinking about how badly death by bludger would hurt.

"I'll protect you from the big bad bludger." Seamus joked passing through the fat lady and into the common room.

"Whatever, loser." I muttered letting the portrait close behind me and I turned directly into the reading room which had two seventh years and Colin, once again, studying. I took the seat across from Colin but didn't interrupt his studying by greeting him.

I opened my Defence textbook and opened to the Boggart chapter. I began to read the chapter and when I finished it, I read it again. I closed my book and bean to write the basics of what I've learned on the parchment. I crossed my legs under the table and began to bite my lip. I looked up and one of the seventh years scoffed at her friend and then got up and left the reading room. I furrowed my brow and went back to what I was writing, I was just getting around to the end of the summary by writing how to deal with a Boggart. Colin then slammed his book and looked at me from across the table. He put the book down and squinted at me with a serious looking face.

"Is Seamus okay?" Colin asked putting both his hands on the table.

"Yeah?" I tried to sound confident but it came out as more of a question. "Why wouldn't he be?"

"I was afraid since he wasn't attached to your hip." Colin broke into a Cheshire grin and I leaned over the table to whack him in the forehead.

"I'm going to go down to dinner," Colin stood up and tucked his book under his arm. "You coming?"

"Yeah, if you'll give me two moments to go put my work in my dorm." I smiled trying to get him to wait for me.

"Sure thing." Colin lifted up his book. "I should do the same, I can't always be reading."

I smiled and left the Reading Room rushing up to my room. I saw Lavender sitting on the bed shushing a crying Parvati. I dropped my book on the floor and rushed over. Lavender explained to me that Draco Malfoy, the pea brained half wit he is, was taunting Parvati in the hallway. He was saying unforgivable things. Lavender pulled me to the other side of the room.

"He called her a slaggy little brown girl." Lavender whispered and my eyes widened.

Lavender walked back over to our friend while I quickly ran and told Colin that my friend was upset and needed me and he nodded telling me to send her well wishes for him, and I ran back to Parvati. We sat there telling her that Malfoy needed a brain more just to be considered a half wit, which made her laugh. When Parvati had stopped crying it was well past dark. Parvati had fallen asleep, luckily we were sitting on her bed so we just laid her back. Lavender went to be and I went to the common room to see if the boys were up. I walked down and saw Seamus sitting by the fire alone.

"Hey." Seamus smiled waving me over to sit with him.

"What're you still doing up?" I asked eyeing the sandwich in his hand.

"Colin said you weren't coming to dinner so I grabbed you something to eat." Seamus blushed and looked at the ground.

"Thanks so much." I sat beside him and ate the sandwich quickly. "That was really thoughtful."

"Your welcome." Seamus said looking up. "So who was crying? Lavender or Parvati?"

"Parvati, Malfoy crossed a line Shay." I muttered wiping my mouth with my sleeve. We chatted for a few minutes before I yawned and triggered a yawn from Seamus.

"Goodnight." I said absentmindedly leaning over kissing his cheek dangerously close to his lips and I lingered for a second too long.

I stood up and when my back was facing him I smiled at sudden burst of confidence. I waltzed out of the common room and into my dorm. Lavender still hadn't fallen asleep and she was smirking at me.

"What's with the smile?" Lavender asked pushing herself up to lean on her elbow.

"What?" I asked not paying attention to her and crawling into bed.

"Oh nothing." Lavender said laying back down on her pillow with a smile.


	6. Hermione In Hogsmead

The next month was perfectly boring, there was no trouble lurking around every corner. Our homework, even Ron's, was always handed in on time, we were playing chess, we were studying before tests. The third year Gryffindor studies were going really well recently, the only thing that has us stumped was the strikingly intelligent, Hermione Granger. At least once a week there would be a small argument, which always ended in a draw, about what class Hermione was in. Every single one of us was dead set on the fact that she was in our class. It was an on going topic, mainly because nothing else of interest was happening.

"I'm telling you," Ron said and everyone rolled their eyes knowing that the cloning theory was coming back up. "She's cloned herself twice, then all three of them go to different classes, then, the two clones teach the real one what they've learned."

"We know you theory, Ron." Lavender moaned reading more of her textbook.

Ron just kept blurting out evidence that proved his theory while everyone just studied and wrote essay's around him. That was until Oliver came by and everyone turned to look at him. Oliver was wearing a jumper that clung to his torso. That was enough for the girls and I to stop caring about our tea leaves essay and start caring about that body. Oliver told Harry that they were going to have a meeting on Thursday after classes which made Harry smile. Then Harry nodded and went back to reading his book. Oliver went to leave then Parvati stopped him by asking him a question.

"Wait, how are the plans for our quidditch team going?" Parvati asked trying her hardest to maintain eye contact.

"Oh you know, just wait until the game against Slytherin. You'll see how we plan to play this season." Oliver smirked and sent a wink towards the table.

Oliver then left us to finish our essays and work in silence. I looked from Oliver's retreating form and back to my homework. I forced myself to reread the essay for the sole purpose of not repeating something after that little distraction. I heard a scoff and looked over at Seamus who was leaning on his hand and shaking his head at me. I raised eyebrows and he just shrugged and looked down at his work. I added a few more paragraphs of text books examples and in class experiences. I rolled up my parchment and set it on top of my closed textbook.

"He has such a nice body." Lavender whispered fanning herself with her hand dramatically.

"He's really cute." Parvati agreed and looked over to where he was talking to Fred and George on the other side of the room.

"He's not _that_ cute." Seamus whined leaning on his hand.

"Oh, but he is." Ron said leaning into Ron and batting his eyelashes which made the cranky Irish lad chuckle.

After they finished their studying and homework they made their way back towards the Gryffindor tower. It was well after dinner and they probably should've returned to their dorm hours ago but all of us were really determined to get good grades this year and really rack up the house points by answering questions and handing in our homework. Ron was talking non stop about Honeydukes and for some reason, the threatening glances didn't seem to get through to Ron's brain because he kept chattering on and Harry just walked staring straight ahead.

"Ron, shut up." Seamus finally cracked and slapped Ron in the arm when he asked Harry what he wanted to do first in Hogsmead.

"What?" Ron looked at Harry and then his eyes went wide. "Oh yeah... sorry mate."

"It's alright," Harry said and turned around to look at Parvati who had opened her mouth to speak ever so slightly. "You guys are all going," He said and Parvati shut her mouth, she's been saying for a while now that if he wanted her to stay behind to keep him company, she would. "Who else is going to get me candy?"

We laughed and then said our good nights to retire for the evening and as usual Seamus eyes watched me for longer than they should have before he smiled at me and I smiled back turning on my heel and walking up the stairs to my dorm. The next day I woke up really excited, but I hid it while we were around Harry, so he didn't feel worse.

"We'll bring you back loads." Dean promised Harry as he walked with us to the front entrance.

"Thanks," He smiled sadly and stayed in the door frame watching Filch check off names on his little list that he thought gave him so much power.

Once we were actually at Hogsmead I began to let my excitement show. We made our way to Honeydukes first and started to pick and choose what candy we wanted. We made sure to grab Harry some sugar quills and a few other candies that you can't really get anywhere else. I picked out some every flavour beans for me and thought that would be enough for this trip.

"Ew," Lavender scoffed looking at my choice of candy. "I got a liver flavoured one once. Not exactly what I was going for with candy." I must have made a disturbed face when I put the candy back because Seamus and Lavender both burst into a fit of laughter.

"You're pretty cute, lass." Seamus said and a blush quickly covered his face. "Like, I don't know, like a pup."

"She reminds you of a pup... romantic." Lavender said thrusting a candy off of the shelf called Foot In Your Mouth into Seamus' chest. It was a foot shaped candy and Lavender laughed at her joke on her way over to Parvati.

"That's not what I meant!" Seamus quickly said practically cradling the candy in his arms.

"I know." I chuckled taking the candy out of his arm and putting it on the shelf quickly replacing it with a heart shaped candy and I shyly smiled at him.

"Oh, uh. Good. Uhm, great." Seamus coughed and then looked up at me with a very cute crooked smile.

We payed for our candy, I decided to get some sugar quills instead, and then we all followed Dean's lead over the the Three Broomsticks for lunch. Everybody in the building knew what we were talking about, it's almost like we were still fighting to be heard over the loud noise of the Great Hall. Seamus even threw a couple chips across the table at me and I made a sour face at him. Lavender then pushed her plate away claiming that she was just going to _burst _if she ate any more.

"Boys," Parvati caught their attention before speaking again. "I think it's time for some girl time, so if you'll kindly run along." Parvati shooed them away with her hands jokingly.

"I'll see you later, Ash." Seamus said standing up from his seat and putting his hands in his pocket lingering by my spot at the edge of the booth.

"We'll meet you back at Hogwarts." Dean declared putting both his hands on Seamus' shoulders and talking over Shay's shoulder.

"Alright." Parvati said rolling her eyes and shooing them for the second time.

Once the boys were out of sight we began to look around the room for cute boys. So far we had spotted Cedric Diggory from Hufflepuff, Oliver Wood from Gryffindor, and a couple of Slytherin boys that we couldn't name if we wanted to. What surprised us was Hermione Granger who walked over to us looking very tired and very sheepish.

"Could I maybe, sit with you guys?" Hermione asked yawning and covering her mouth with her hand.

"Sure," Lavender muttered shocked. "Take a seat. We're scoping out cute boys." Lavender whispered wiggling her eyebrows and glimpsing over it to look for boys.

"She's boy crazy. It's a fact." Parvati joked about Lavender as Hermione slide into the booth on my side.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask you something." I told Hermione leaning on my hand and looking towards Hermione.

"If it's about homework-" Hermione started but didn't seem to have the energy to finish.

"What classes do you have?" I asked her and she suddenly picked up the menu.

"Does this place have milkshakes?" Hermione sighed paying no attention to my question.

"Hermione?" I asked taking the menu from her hands gently. "Are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Hermione snapped resting her head on the table.

"Parvati," I started digging some money out of my pocket. "Why don't you get Hermione something to drink."

"Yeah sure," Parvati took the money and stood up. "Lavender, come with me?"

"Sure." Lavender stood up and they walked over to the counter.

"Hermione?" I asked shaking her slightly and she groaned. "I think you need to sleep. Are you sick?"

"No." Hermione muttered. "Just tired, sorry for snapping at you. I haven't slept too much lately."

"Does your shoulder hurt?" I asked placing my hand on it while Parvati and Lavender returned with four warm glasses of butterbeer.

"Yeah," Hermione thanked us for the drink. "How'd you know?"

"I've seen that backpack you drag with you everywhere. My shoulder gets sore when I see you lug it around the halls." I joked and thanked Parvati when she handed me a glass of butterbeer.

"Oh," Hermione sipped her drink and the colour started to return to her cheeks. "Yeah, I really like to learn different things. Some of the books in the library are really interesting." Hermione smiled starting to perk up a bit more with the help of a warm drink.

"Yeah. I like looking at that Most Potente Potions every now and then." I laughed remembering last year and Parvati kicked my foot. "What? Everyone knows."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you should bring up bad memories." Lavender scolded and I pouted my lips at her.

"That's one of my greatest accomplishments so far." I muttered unhappily.

"Oh, are you talking about the polyjuice potion you made? Ever since I heard you were able to do that I've been working so hard in potions. I've never been second best in a class, other than flying lessons." Hermione sighed but then quickly smiled. "But you're brilliant at potions."

"Thanks Hermione." I said a little shocked and I saw in the girls faces what I bet they could see in mine, our thoughts of Hermione changing.

"No problem." Hermione checked her pocket watch. "We should really get back to Hogwarts. It's four o'clock."

"Oh, don't want to miss the feast." Parvati said rushing to finish her drink and let a satisfied sigh pass her lips when she did.

Once we arrived back to Hogwarts, Hermione rushed off to her common room to meet up with her friends before the feast. We walked back to ours slowly and began to talk about the strange run in with Hermione.

"She used to be really bitter." Parvati remembered when Hermione was sassy and had a very know-it-all attitude.

"She just said someone was better than her in a class." Lavender said her eyes widened before she turned to watch where she was going.

"True," I thought for a second and quieted down when to Ravenclaws started approaching us on the steps and they simply walked pass us sending us a friendly smile. "Maybe she's matured or maybe someone put her in her place." I chuckled and Colin ran up to us with his usual chirpy smile.

"Hello!" He smiled and started to walk with us. "Are you going to the common room?"

"Yeah, care to tag along?" I asked with a knowing smile.

"Sure!" Colin fell in step with us. "How was Hogsmead? I can't wait to go next year! It's going to be so fun! I heard Honeydukes was fantastic! Was it fantastic?" Colin spluttered and we all tried our hardest to keep up.

"It was really fun, and yes, Honeydukes was fantastic." Lavender giggled at the excited boy.

"I'm going to get quills to eat in class next year! Harry sat with me and Ginny during lunch. Did he tell you that? Have you talked to him yet? Or did you just get in? Oh, you still have your candy. You must've just gotten in." Colin rambled and Parvati must've been ready because she answered every question with as much speed as he spoke with.

Colin then began to blabber on about something or other, it was really quite adorable. Colin had two distinct personalities but not like any type of personality disorder, just focused and unfocused. When he was focused he used small sentences and spoke very slowly and with great pronunciation. When he wasn't studying or focused on a chess game we would speak in very quick and very long sentences. He wouldn't stutter but he asked so many question it was hard to keep up. We finished climbing the last staircase towards our tower and Colin said the password in the middle of one of his sentences and then continued on talking. At the moment he was talking about what kind of food would be at the feast. Colin waved goodbye and ran into his dorm and we walked up to our room to put away our candy and then waste and hour or two before it was tie for the feast.


	7. The Fat Lady

After an hour of chatting and wasting time Lavender, Parvati, and I made our way down to the common room where the boys were sitting around doing nothing important and Ron was talking with Harry about Hogsmead. Dean brought up Zonko's Joke Shop and I rolled my eyes at Ron's over excited attitude. Parvati went to go talk to Neville by the window and Lavender sat on the armrest of the chair Dean had made himself comfortable in. I looked at at Seamus who nodded his head in a way to gesture me over to him. Seamus looked really good, in a way that I couldn't explain. His shoulder blades were back, leaning against the wall that had a table about three feet away from it. He had untucked the white dress shirt so it stuck out from under his vest. Seamus had pulled his tie loose but let it hang around his neck all the same. Seamus had rid himself of the long black robe a while ago. Seamus stood there looking at me, biting the right side of his lip and waited for me to go over and talk to him.

I made my way over and sat on the edge of the table but kept my legs stiff against the ground so I wouldn't tip the table over. I held onto the edge of the table with my hands and looked at Seamus expectantly. Seamus just looked at me for a minute before either of us said anything. Seamus told me about what the boys did in Hogsmead and that I'd missed out. Seamus bit his lip again but quickly released his lip from the confines of his teeth. He smirked at me and asked where I'd been hiding for the last hour.

"I was in my room, with the girls." I told him cocking my head to the side. "What's it to _you_?" I challenged with a smirk of my own.

"Just wondering." Seamus blushed and stuck his hands in pockets.

"So, we had a really weird run in with Hermione Granger today, at the Three Broomsticks." I said scrunching my eyebrows at the memory of it.

"Oh yeah, did you have a full conversation without her correcting you?" He joked and I leaned forward enough to smack him on the side of the head before leaning back again.

"No, you dork." I shook my head and he smiled gently and asked me what I meant with seriousness. "No she just showed up and asked to sit with us. She was really nice but seemed really tired. We asked her what class she was in and she totally ducked the question."

"There are two things that could explain it, she's either mental," Seamus pushed forward and leaned closer to me. "Or she's hiding something." He let himself fall back against the wall.

Harry called us over and told us about a really weird run in with Professor Lupin while we were at Hogsmead. He had being walking around when Lupin invited him in to see a preview of the next lesson. Harry thinks Lupin felt bad seeing Harry all by himself. Then Snape arrived with a steaming potion which Harry found concerning. Apparently Lupin was sick and the potion helps, or that's what Lupin told Harry. Lupin drank all of it and hated the taste, but he drank all of it the same. I raised an eyebrow at that, I wouldn't put a potion Snape made any where near my mouth if I were Lupin.

Seamus was close to me the whole time Harry was explaining the run in with the very popular Professor. Not close as in if I moved my arm I could feel him, it was thigh touching, hand brushing closeness that I didn't shy away from. I didn't stop it, I didn't _want_ to. Seamus made me nervous, Seamus Finnigan has always made me nervous. I wish I could explain why, after all he's my best friend, explosive Seamus. I wasn't suppose to have gigantic crush manifesting in the pit of my stomach, but I did. I didn't want to get up and leave the closeness of Seamus but the feast was starting in a few minutes.  
While walking down the steps to the Great Hall for the Halloween festivities Neville, who had never been the most coordinated, fell down a couple of the steps and landed on the platform. We tried not to laugh as he got up awkwardly and brushed himself off but I couldn't help myself as I let out a chuckle. Neville sent a face my way and I stopped laughing pressing my lips into a thin line.  
As we continued to walk we heard a familiar voice, the voice of Colin, talking about how hungry and excited he was but after looking around Dean determined that his voice just carried. The boy must have been at least three staircases down and after looking over the railing, Parvati confirmed that. "He's so nutty." Seamus said shaking his head.

"Be nice!" I said elbowing Seamus in the ribs. "He's so adorable."

I walked into the Great Hall and immediately turned my attention upwards. There were jack-o-lanterns floating above us but none of them low enough for students to hit their heads on. The jack-o-lanterns were filled with candles that were dimly flickering. There were bright orange streamers that would look like they were attached to the sky but they were actually attached to the enchanting ceiling, which was very dark but filled with beautiful stars. The last decoration above our heads was a swarm of bats that were animatedly fluttering from spot to spot.

We sat down at the table and my eyes drifted over to the teachers where Snape repeatedly glanced at Lupin who was happily talking to Flitwick. I poked Harry's arm and nodded my head in Snape's direction and he looked over with confusion. He looked at me with a confused face and I know that he knew exactly what I was trying to tell him.

I enjoyed the feast with my friends. We ate a whole meal and then ate seconds. The food at these feast's were always so delicious and my Grams cooking came no where near as good. My eyes widened and I hoped that she couldn't hear my thoughts because if she did I would be suffering next summer. Harry went on and on about how normal he felt aside from being the only one not going to Hogsmead but that didn't make him abnormal around here. It just made his Aunt and Uncle intolerable.

Dumbledore stood and announced that the feast was over and everyone groaned and complained but got up to leave the Great Hall none-the-less. I had a stomach ache from and over encumbered stomach. Seamus laughed at me and I pouted at him jokingly. We were almost back to the Gryffindor tower when we got stuck in a huge pile up outside of the entrance to the common room.

"I wonder why no one is going in.." Seamus muttered putting a hand on my shoulder and trying to get a glimpse of what's happening.

Percy then stormed through claiming he's head boy and other big headed things that I rolled my eyes at. When the crowd made a path for him I saw the portrait was clawed to shreds. I gasped and looked at the damage done. Percy screamed for someone to get Dumbledore and nearly seconds later Dumbledore appeared followed by Snape, Lupin, and McGonagall.

"She's missing." Seamus whispered into my ear and I grabbed his hand instinctively, he smiled but kept looking ahead.  
He smiled down at me nervously and we watched a Peeves floated by and did a couple rolls. He floated right behind Dumbledore who was now gently running his fingers across the top left hand corner of the painting that had five very clear, very straight, scratches that would fit some kind of dog or big cat.  
Harry saw this too and his eyes glazed over for a minute and he sucked a breathe in tightly. I heard this and turned my head to look at him and my head was leaning against Seamus' bicep. Which, when I looked up, made Seamus mile brightly.

"Mr. Headmaster, I've talked to the Fat Lady." Peeves muttered with a great big smile. "Before you ask me where she is, you should know that you won't find her. She's quite hidden." Dumbledore's hopeful face went sombre. "I've never seen a fat lady run like that. Around trees, dipping and dodging." Peeves flew around a bit and then turned his attention back to Dumbledore. "He was mad you know, when she wouldn't let him in. He's got some temper." Peeves turned to float away but turned back to Dumbledore and said the intruders name with a smile. "Sirius Black."

"To the Great Hall! All of you." Dumbledore demanded and Seamus squeezed my hand.

I pulled my hand away from Seamus' but stayed close to him anyway. Seamus grabbed my elbow and sat on the Gryffindor table with his feet on the bench and I followed his lead. So did most of the Gryffindor house. We were waiting for instruction but we were only joined by very confused Hufflepuff's, Ravenclaw's, and Slytherin's, but the Slytherin's looked ticked off as well as confused.

The other three houses stood around where we were already sitting. Dumbledore then walked to the center of the circle and announced that the teachers would be doing a thorough search of the castle and the prefects would stand guard at the door to the hall. He walked towards the hall and turned around. He asked the Gryffindors to get off of the table and we did so that way he could move them and then waved his wand again which made enough purple sleeping bags for everyone.

I walked over to Draco and he scoffed and turned face away from me but I grabbed his upper arm and dragged him to Hermione and had her follow Draco and I to Padma. I could literally feel all the Gryffindors eyes on me but I brushed it off. I explained to the three of them what happened, that the Fat Lady was attacked, I left out the fact that the Fat Lady was the entrance to our common room, and that Peeves said Black was in the castle. I told them everything I knew before sending them off to spread the word to the rest of their own houses.

The chattering spread like wild fire and Seamus walked over to me and grabbed my hand, dragging me back to our circle of friends. Lavender had chosen a spot for all of us to rest for the night. Seamus lead me there and I crawled into the sleeping bag quickly. Seamus laid in the one beside me and since no one said boys and girls apart everyone was intermixed. After twenty minutes of rolling around I gave up and poked Seamus.

"Shay?" I asked him with another poke. "You awake?" I whispered quietly.

"I am now, lass." Seamus rolled over to look at me and I must have looked worried. "They'll find him love, I promise."

"It's just... we were so normal. All year. Now Harry's got an escaped convict after him?" I whimpered slightly.

"It's going to be fine." Seamus whispered reaching out and touching my face gently. "Go to sleep. Wouldn't want Percy to tell us off." He whispered with his usual grin which made me smile too.

Then Dumbledore walked in and had an interesting chat with Percy. One that had Seamus and I on edge. We looked around and saw that Harry was awake but no one else was. We were going to have quite a chat in the morning, and that made me even more anxious.


	8. Quidditch

"What the bloody hell are you talking about?" Ron asked Harry as he sat with his friends in an empty classroom.

"Snape thinks that someone on the inside helped Black into the castle," Harry looked down and closed his eyes tightly. "and I think he's right."

"Hold on here," Lavender said perched oh the edge of a desk with her feet dangling below her. "so Snape thinks it's Lupin, that what I'm guessing from Snape saying he _expressed his concerns when you hired..._" Lavender mimicked Snape monotone voice that always seemed to drag on. "and you believe him?"

"I'm not saying I believe it's Lupin, I'm saying I believe someone helped Back in, and I've been thinking of theory's last night." Harry said putting up three fingers to tell us he had three theories before quickly putting his hand back by his side. "Draco is doing his fathers bidding, you guys know he wants me gone." We all shook our heads. "Hagrid saw the big black dog that I saw before I got on the knight bus and decided to keep him as a pet but he turned out to be Black." Harry said and I thought about it for a moment before shrugging. "Lupin let him in for some reason, he knew my name, he knows how to deal with dementors. I don't really believe it, but it's a theory."

"I guess," I started from my lookout spot beside the door. "logically he could have."

"But logically why would he have?" Seamus asked sitting at the desk the teacher would normally occupy at the front of the class.

"That's where I'm stumped." Harry said crossing his arms over his chest.

"At least we moved back into the tower. I don't much care for sleeping on the floor." I muttered waving my hand around.

"We better get going. Classes will start soon and I don't want teachers catching us in here." Parvati said heading towards the door.

I waited for everyone else to leave the room before I pushed my self off the wall and grabbed the door frame to spin myself out of the room. We all made our way to Herbology where Hannah Abbott from Hufflepuff would not stop talking about Sirius Black and how he could transform himself into anything to hide. Not matter how much we wanted to focus on lessons, which had been going so well, we couldn't. Our heads were as low as our spirits. At the end of the day we were trying to get into the common room but Sir Cadogan changed the password for the third time today, and didn't tell anyone. I wanted nothing more than The Fat Lady back, she found Fortuna Major worked just fine but Sir Cadogan used overly long and complicated passwords. Ron and Harry went to the library to find Percy who would help us get into our common room.

"Care to duel, Gryffindors?" Sir Cadogan asked happily waving his sword around and jabbing the air.

"For the last time, no." Dean rolled his eyes and leaned his head against the wall from his position on the floor.

We were all just waiting around for Ron and Harry to return with the head boy. Dean was sitting on the floor by the wall of the portrait. Lavender was sitting beside him with her legs crossed and her frustration rising. Neville was sitting on the top star with his knees on the stair two below him and his elbows were rested on his knees. Parvati and I were both leaning over the railing and watching down the stair cases, Parvati closer to the stairs then I. Seamus was beside me also leaning against the railing but instead he was facing and chatting with Dean.

"One duel or maybe a quest. Is there any bidding need be done?" Sir Cadogan asked looking around at us.

"We need into the common room?" Dean suggested and Sir Cadogan looked hesitant before shaking his head.

"I can't just go ahead and let people in, it's unsafe, you must recite the password." Sir Cadogan said making nearly everyone's eyes roll.

"I can't _stand_ that guy." Seamus said turning around and whispering to Parvati and I.

"Tell me about it." Parvati muttered unhappily and we watched Percy approach the common room.

Percy, who had an argument with Sir Cadogan, got us into the common room and we all sat ourselves down on the chairs and couches.

"He's barking mad!" Seamus said stopping Percy from leaving to return to the library. "Can't we get someone else."

"I agree that he's mad." Percy said removing Seamus' hand from he's arm. "But he's the only one who would do it. Everyone else is afraid because of what happened to the Fat Lady." Percy said before turning and leaving to finish his studying.

"Hey, Harry!" Oliver walked over and frowning. "I heard McGonagall wants you out of practice."

"No, trust me, it's fine. She said that she's going to have Madame Hooch present during practice." Harry explained resting his head back on the couch and Oliver just stared at him.

"Oh, good." Oliver broke into a smile. "I don't like teachers lurking about but as long as our star seeker can practice, I guess." He then trotted off to go work on some quidditch plays.

"McGonagall didn't want you practising?" Seamus asked from the chair he was sitting in while I half leaned and half sat on the armrest.

"She was about to come clean and explain everything." Harry smiled with a chuckle.

"Did you pretend like you had no idea?" Neville asked sitting on the floor near the fire.

"No, I told her I knew and she looked quite shocked." Harry grinned looking into the fire.

It was a while before anything of interest happened. Everyone was quiet and we were finally back into our studying habits. It was the day before the big quidditch match and everyone – except Harry who was running late from practice – was sitting in the Defence Against The Dark Arts classroom waiting for Professor Lupin to make his way into the classroom with a smile, as per usual. Then, while we were happily chatting, Snape walked in a shushed everyone demanding everyone sit.

"Lupin is sick, therefore I will replace him for today." Snape murmured looking through Lupins note on his desk at the front.

Ten minutes of Snape mumbling unhappily and looking through notes later Harry busted into the class looking very out of breath. Snape took house points and Harry sank into his seat and asked Ron in a hushed whisper why.

"Lupin hasn't left any record of the topics you have covered so far –" Snape uttered miserably.

"Sir, we've done Boggarts, Red Caps, Kappas, and Grindylows," Neville shyly raised his hand and look from his desk to Snapes face. "we were just about to start – "

"Be quiet." Snape snapped at Neville coldly and Neville quickly retreated to look at his hands.

"I wasn't looking for information I was merely commenting on his lack of organization." Snape stopped looking through papers and he smacked his hands on the desk.

"He's the best teacher we've ever had." Dean snapped and everyone looked his way instantly.

"You are easily satisfied. Lupin is hardly over-taxing you – I would expect first years to be able to deal with Red Caps and Grindylows. Today we shall discuss," Snape flipped to the back of the textbook. "werewolves. Page three hundred and ninety four. All of you! Now!"

This went on the entire lesson, we would try to explain or answer something and he would snap at us. Parvati even got frustrated during the lesson and she was typically the voice of reason. Everyone glared at him as he rejected every answer and then told us something that would be nearly the exact same as the answer that was rejected.

"Don't ask the question, if you don't want the answer!" Ron suddenly quipped unable to contain himself further.

"Detention, Weasley." Snape turned and went back to explaining werewolves. When the bell rang Snape assigned us a two parchment essay on how to kill a werewolf. "Weasley, stay behind. We must arrange your detention."

We were all grouchy as we left the classroom leaving poor Ron behind to get his punishment. We all lazily made our way to the common room except for Harry, Parvati, and Dean. Harry had a quidditch practice and we all thought it a good idea for a few of us to supervise him and the surrounding area. The rest of us however went to go take a minute and have a verbal crusade against Snape. Ron, who arrived a few minutes after us, plopped himself on my lap and began to say very loud and rude things which made Percy send him a sharp glare as he passed from his dorm to the hallways.

"Get off of me." I mumbled into his back and pushed him onto the floor.

"Rude." Ron muttered crossing his arms and continued to lie on his back on the ground.

"Whatever." I laughed throwing a pillow at him which he put under his head.

We all talked about how excited we were for quidditch to start then Seamus brought up the bludger fear again. I quickly retaliated with banshee joked and Seamus glared at me but shut up.

"I'm going to bed." Lavender said and I stood up to walk to our dorm with her.

The next morning was an exciting one, with the quidditch game today and all. Lavender and Parvati were shaking me awake and pulling my covers off of me. I groggily got up and changed into my robes. I walked down to breakfast with Parvati and Lavender and we took a seat with our over excited friends who were stuffing their face and making predictions about the game was would be taking place in just a few hours.

Harry, who was off sitting with the team as he usually does on a game day to get ready, kept glancing over his shoulder with suspicion and Lavender was the one who pointed that out to us. Harry has been on edge these last couple of days, always spitting out theories and staying up all hours of the night reading old newspapers for any information on Black that we didn't know about. I slowly thought about Harry's unique situation while I ate some of my breakfast. I heard Seamus talking about Gryffindor trailing in points but catching the snitch but I tuned him out trying focus on my thoughts.

"Ashlee?" Parvati elbowed my ribs and I snapped out of my trance.

"What?" I asked looking around at my friends who were already looking at me.

"Dean asked you what you were thinking about." Ron muttered his mouth full of toast.

"Oh, nothing of importance." I waved off their questions and started picking at my food again.

Then the quidditch team stood and left the Great Hall, probably so Wood could have a two and a half hour pep talk so that way Harry could win the game. We stayed in the Great Hall chatting long after breakfast had been removed from the tables. We already had our hats and mitts so we were all ready good to go out to the pitch and cheer on our friends during the first match of the season. Ron, who had just predicted that Gryffindor is going to lead by one hundred points then Harry will catch the snitch, was staring at me concerned. I figured that the only reason he was concerned was the fact that I keep zoning out so I waved him off.

"Let's go down to the pitch." Dean suggested and we all put on our mittens and scarves as an answer.

The walk there was horrible. The rain was beating down and the wind was course altering. We practically had to fight to get to the pitch and by the time we were in the stands it was impossible to get anymore wet. While the game started we were cheering, or trying to, but we couldn't even see the game. I could make out some shapes of players, the yellow was easier to see, but I could see anything else. I tried to spot Harry in the madness but I was coming up with nothing. Lavender excused herself when Oliver called a time out. Lavender was clever, clever enough to look through her spell books for something that could help Harry's eyesight in this weather.

Lavender returned with a smile and Harry zoomed by our spot with a cheeky grin on his face. We all laughed but become overly silent when the dementors filled the pitch. I couldn't even count them, I couldn't make out where one started and the other ended. They were filing in together and for a moment I feared that Sirius Black was actually on the pitch but obviously he wouldn't do that unless he _wanted _to go back to Azkaban. I felt Seamus' hand creep into mine and I was thankful for the rain at this moment because no one, even the very close in proximity Seamus, could see my blush. I looked up and saw Harry plummeting down to the ground. I gasped and panicked a little ready to jumped off the stand and over to him. Seamus held my hand tighter and we all raced down the stands together. I let go of Seamus' hand and sprinted over to Harry as McGonagall and a few other teachers were rushing from the other side.

I made it to Harry first and quickly slide down beside him. Oliver landed and was the next to reach him. I pressed my ear to Harry's chest and heard his heart beat and breathe and I calmed a little. Everyone else began to crowd around and Oliver immediately shooed them back. He even made the other Gryffindors stay away. McGonagall moved me out of the way and Lupin scooped Harry into his arms. The teachers left for the castle and the Gryffindors held back for a minute knowing we weren't going to be allowed in the hospital wing with him anyway. We slowly walked to the castle all completely in shock. We broke us out of the shock was the twins sprinting to the castle and we stepped it up to follow their lead. We ran through the castle while our robes dripped onto the floor.  
Once actually inside the hospital wing Pomfrey told us he was completely fine and he would wake up any minute now. We all waited around his bed and I claimed the lone chair before anyone else could. I brought it closer to the bed so I could see over the crowd of standing people. Everyone was adding to the chatter around Harry.

"That was the single most terrifying thing that I've ever seen." Lavender said putting both of her hands on my shoulders.

"Thank god the ground was soft. I thought he was dead for sure." Neville squeaked shaking his head.

"He didn't even break his glasses." Alicia, from the quidditch team, said pointing the the framed lens on his face.

Then Harry snapped up and startled everyone. He was asking questions about the match and Fred was the one that broke the news of their losing game. Cedric Diggory had caught the snitch before he could even tell that Harry had fallen. Cedric was even trying to get a rematch but even Wood admitted that they won fair and square, the game had never stopped when someone had fallen before. Oliver, who was still in the shower which George thinks is because he's trying to drown himself, had admitted defeat and that was a lot to ask of the poor guy. The twins then began muttering about quidditch while the rest of the team wished him well and left the wing to change. We stayed for a moment and everyone was looking around and no one wanted to break the news.

"Did anyone get my nimbus?" Harry asked weakly looking around at us.

"Well," Lavender muttered quietly. "Kind of."

"Kind of?" Harry questioned furrowing his brow.

"Well, when you fell, it blew away and directly into the whomping willow and the willow doesn't like being hit. So it, lashed out." Parvati said with a small smile and placed the wood splinters and pieces she carried all the way up her onto his bed.

Harry just stared at it while Pomfrey ushered us out muttering about the mess of mud we had all left. We walked back to the common room and cleaned up without a single word. I laid in my bed with my wet hair on my pillow. I huffed out a big breathe of air and rolled onto my side where I could properly see Lavender. She was already looking at me with eyes that simply knew that I was already thinking of things I did wrong.

"You couldn't have done anything. Dumbledore barely had time to do anything." Lavender said crawling under her blankets.

"But what if I had a hunch? What if I knew something terrible was going to happen but I didn't warn him. I thought, I thought it was nothing." I whispered so quiet to the point where Lavender could barely hear me.

"What are you talking about?" Lavender asked genuinely confused.

"Never mind." I shook my head and rolled back so I was looking up.

I tried my hardest to fall asleep, but I couldn't. I closed my eyes and tried to calm my mind for nearly a half hour but it was useless. I looked around and saw everyone was asleep. I sighed and got up and walked into the common room. Everyone had gone to sleep a long time ago and I just sat by the fire and began to stare at it.

"What are you doing? Go to bed." Percy demanded stepping through the portrait.

"I can't sleep." I replied lazily continuing to stare at the crackling flames.

"I am Head Boy and you will listen to me." Percy muttered at I could practically hear his anger as I made no attempts to move.

"Don't make me go and I won't tell anyone you use your patrol times to make out with Penelope Clearwater." I challenged and I didn't hear anything else except the sounds of feet going up stairs and then a door slamming shut.


End file.
